{UAH} Britain should not take more Middle East refugees, says David Cameron

Comrade Akim Odong,

Here is the latest UK position on the migrant's crisis. The UK has
rejected the idea of European quotas. It says it is still committed to
helping the migrants, but that it will choose its refugees from the
refugee camps in Syria and Turkey. It says it will not allow those who
have crossed borders illegally to enter the UK because it will send a
wrong message to the milIions of people who want to migrate to the UK
that all they need is to cross borders. He says the only solution is
to the end the crisis in the Middle East and Africa because Europe can
not absorb up to 10 million refugees who are now camped in Syria,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan The opposition labour
leader Yvette Cooper, is calling for admission of only 10,000 Syrian
refugees. compare that to Germany that has said it will accept 800,000
this year alone and up to 2 million overall.

George Okello.


Britain should not take more Middle East refugees, says David Cameron

Prime minister maintains hardline position despite pressure for UK to
do more to help amid outcry over pictures of drowned refugee child in
Turkey


David Cameron faced accusations of heartlessness after he insisted
Britain should not take any further refugees from the war-torn Middle
East, as community groups prepared to show that councils in the UK are
willing to take thousands more.

The prime minister knows he and the home secretary, Theresa May, will
be pressured over the migration issue when parliament returns next
week, but some senior Tory backbenchers said they expected Cameron to
shift his ground after distressing pictures of a drowned child, who
had been found washed up on a beach in Turkey, went viral.

Cameron insisted the best solution to the crisis was to bring peace
and stability to the Middle East. During a visit to Northamptonshire,
he said: "We have taken a number of genuine asylum seekers from Syrian
refugee camps and we keep that under review, but we think the most
important thing is to try to bring peace and stability to that part of
the world.

"I don't think there is an answer that can be achieved simply by
taking more and more refugees."


Analysis/ How many refugees should Britain take?

Yvette Cooper's call for 10,000 more places for people fleeing the
Middle East is welcome, but the UK has the infrastructure and
experience to take many more

But in a sign that the political temperature on the issue was rising,
Cameron faced calls to do more from both the Catholic church and two
of the Labour leadership contenders.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Catholic church in England
and Wales, said: "This is a disgrace. That we are letting people die
and seeing dead bodies on the beaches, when together, Europe is such a
wealthy place. We should be able to fashion a short-term response, not
just a long-term response.

"It is no longer an abstract problem of people on the scrounge. It's
not. It's people who are desperate for the sake of their families,
their elderly, their youngsters, their children. And the more we see
that the more the opportunity for a political response that is a bit
more generous, is growing. What is screaming out is the human tragedy
of this problem, to which we can be more generous."

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary and Labour leadership
candidate, accused the prime minister of turning his back on the worst
migration crisis since the second world war.

"It is heartbreaking what is happening on our continent. We cannot
keep turning our backs on this. We can – and must – do more. If every
area in the UK took just 10 families, we could offer sanctuary to
10,000 refugees. Let's not look back with shame at our inaction."

Cooper urged May to convene a conference of council leaders to
discover how many refugees local authorities are prepared to take. The
task of organising a conference is being handed to Citizens UK, the
community campaign group, and there are signs that some
Conservative-led councils are likely to offer help.

The Conservative leader of Kingston upon Thames council, Kevin Davis,
has already written to 50 Tory-led councils asking them to become
involved in a scheme run by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, to help find
private housing for refugees for a year.

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary and another Labour
leadership contender has demanded that the government make a Commons
statement next week. He said the response of Cameron and his ministers
had veered from the inadequate to the misjudged and was a stain on the
nation's conscience.


"Many of these refugees are children, fleeing the violence and horrors
of war. The images we have seen of children washed up on beaches will
leave no person unmoved. When Parliament returns next week, MPs must
be given an opportunity to debate the Government's handling of the
crisis and the chance to make a judgement on whether Britain should
accept a share of refugees," he said.


Cameron does not want to join any Europe-wide resettlement programme
for refugees, believing that if the UK became involved in a
large-scale scheme, it would act as a magnet for other migrants and it
would be impossible to distinguish economic migrants from refugees.

The prime minister said Britain was focused on stabilising and
improving the countries where migrants and refugees came from and
highlighted action the government was taking to improve security at
the French port of Calais.


He said: "We are taking action right across the board, helping
countries from which these people are coming, stabilising them and
trying to make sure there are worthwhile jobs and stronger economies
there.

"We are obviously taking action at Calais and the Channel, there's
more that we need to do and we are working together with our European
partners as well. These are big challenges but we will meet them."


Analysis/ Refugees welcome? How UK and Germany compare on migration

Berlin has proposed a quota system, thousands of Germans have
volunteered to help refugees, and press coverage has been more
balanced – but there have also been more violent incidents in Germany


Citizens UK, the community organising group, the Refugee Council and
council leaders – including some from Conservative-run councils – are
pressing ahead with holding a pledging conference about taking
refugees fleeing the instability in the Middle East.

Neil Jameson, executive director of Citizens UK, said: "We are
delighted Cooper has made her intervention, but this should not be a
party-political issue. We think civil society can show there is a
generosity in the British people, and with the help of churches,
mosques and synagogues we can identify empty property in which
refugees can be housed. The housing must not be public-sector housing
because that would not be politically tenable."


Citizens UK had been lobbying the government for more than a year to
take more people under an EU-funded scheme that allowed refugees to be
taken from UN camps and to be housed in the UK for a year.

Cooper has suggested a target of 10,000 refugees being taken by the UK
– a figure endorsed by Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary and
her rival for the Labour leadership. She also won the support of the
Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, who said Wales "stands ready to
play its full part".

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.